Southern Adventist University KnowledgeExchange@Southern Senior Research Projects Southern Scholars 2004 A Nation Divided: The heC rokee Alliance with the Confederate States of America Adam Ruf Follow this and additional works at: https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/senior_research Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Ruf, Adam, "A Nation Divided: The heC rokee Alliance with the Confederate States of America" (2004). Senior Research Projects. 42. https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/senior_research/42 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Southern Scholars at KnowledgeExchange@Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Research Projects by an authorized administrator of KnowledgeExchange@Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Nation Divided: The Cherokee Alliance with the Confederate States of America ) AdamRuf Southern Scholars Research Paper January 8, 2004 The Harley-Davidson slogan is "a world built of road, sky and horizon."1 In the South, part of that unique world is along a road that is historically significant to Native- Americans-the "Trail of Tears." Chattanooga, Tennessee marks the starting point of this 200-mile ride to Waterloo, Alabama. From its small beginnings ten years ago, this "motorcycle tribute to honor the Cherokees" has grown into an event with more than 100,000 bikers participating.2 One ofthe participants this year was a man named Harvey Davis. Harvey has participated in this event for the past two years. His chrome-plated bike, leather chaps, and leather jacket with a large Confederate flag declaring that "the South will rise again"-blended in well with the other bikes. He wore a large Indian- head patch on the front of his jacket in honor of the Cherokees. Harvey says that it is his way of expressing sympathies for the people who died on the trial. "The event is so big, and we just forget all about the importance of it. "3 For Harvey there is no connection between the Indian head on the front of his jacket and the flag represented on the back. However, the historical connection between the Confederacy and the Cherokee was due in a large part to the "Trail of Tears." The event that caused the death of more than 4,000 Cherokees4 also caused division in a strong Cherokee Nation and planted seeds of mistrust that would grow into an alliance with the Confederate states of America. 1Harley-Davidson USA Slogan, Harley-Davidson Official website, 2003 [cited 6 October, 2003]. Available from the World Wide Web at <http://www.harley-davidson.com>. 2Bill Poovey, ''Motorcycle Tribute to Honor the Cherokees," The Macon Telegraph, 20 September 2003, Sec. A, p.l. 3Harvey Davis, Interviewed by Adam Ruf(September 19, 2003). 4William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail ofTears (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1993), 7. 2 There have been many books written about the Civil War-from biographies of famous generals to commentaries on social conditions in the North and South, even fictional books about Civil War heroes. Among the vast stacks of books about the Civil War there is one topic which is severely under-represented. The collection of literature about the involvement ofNative Americans in the Civil War is surprisingly small and insufficient. The books written on the subject tend to discuss the impact Cherokee brigades had fighting for the Confederacy against the Union. Historians rush headlong into gruesome and detailed accounts of the battles and the successes of the Cherokees in the Civil War, often overlooking the incredible story that led to the alliance of the Cherokees with the Confederate States. This paper will examine the three main factors that changed the Cherokee position from neutrality to open alliance with the Confederate States of America. While it is has many titles--''the expulsion,"5 ''the Trail of Tears," ''the removal,"6 and even ''the betrayal"-the forced relocation of the Cherokees from their native lands in North Georgia and Tennessee created a rift in the ruling class of the Cherokee Nation The division played an important role in Cherokee post-removal politics and the Cherokee decision to join the Confederacy in the Civil War. This division started as a harmless difference of opinion between Chief John Ross, 7 the head chief of the Cherokee Nation, and John Ridge. 8 In 1832, John Ridge, a 5William G. McLoughlin, After the Trail of Tears, l. EdwardE. Dale and Gaston Litton, Cherokee Cavaliers (Norman, O.K.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939), 3. 'John Ross was born in 1790 near Lookout Mountain TN. His father was a Scotch farmer, and his mother a quarter blood Cherokee making him one-eighth Cherokee. He assisted in drafting the Cherokee Constitution pf 1827 and the following year became the principal chief. He strongly opposed the move westward, but finding that it was inevitable he organized the migration and set up a new government out west. For a full account of John Ross' life see Gary Moulton, "John Ross," American National Biography Online Feb. 2000, [cited 1 September 2003] available at <http://www.anb.org/artic1es/20/20-00885.html>. 3 tribal leader from New Echota,9 the first capital of the Cherokee Nation, joined a small group of Cherokees who began to doubt that the Cherokee Nation would continue to thrive in the East. He began to openly advocate plans for the relocation of the Cherokees to Indian reservation in the west. 10 Ridge's reasons for supporting the move were clear. First, the Cherokee Nation's constitution was continually violated by acts from the state of Georgia In one instance, a non-Indian typesetter for the Cherokee newspaper, The Phoenix, was arrested and sent to jail by the Georgia authorities. 11 He was sentenced to four years in prison for living with the Cherokees without a permit. The Cherokee Nation appealed to the Supreme Court which overturned the Georgian law, but the Court did not ensure freedom for the Cherokee Nation. 12 Cherokee leaders like John Ridge and Elias Boudinot were excited that they now had such powerful friends as the Supreme Court, but they were soon to be disappointed. The President refused to uphold the Supreme Court decision. When the 8John Ridge was the son of Major Ridge. He was educated with his cousin Elias Boudinot at the mission school in Cornwall, Connecticut. He was one of the most influential leaders of the Cherokee Nation. He married a Sarah Northrup, with whom he lived in a beautiful home on a large plantation which was cultivated by his numerous slaves. He was one of the people who assigned his name to the treaty of New Echota, and was assisnated four years later. For a complete biography see James W. Parins, John Rollin Ridge: His Life and Works (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 1991). 9ouring the fall of 1819, the Cherokee Council begins holding annual meetings in Newtown, a small community located at the jWlction of the Coosawattee and Conasauga rivers in present-day Gordon County. On November 12, 1825, the council adopts a resolution making Newtown the Cherokee Nation's capital. They changed the town's name to New Echota in honor of Chota, a beloved town located in present-day Tennessee. New Echota was where the publishing center for the Pheonix, the Cherokee Newspaper. For more info visit or call the historical park located at: 1211 Chatsworth Hwy. N.E., Calhoun, Georgia 30701. Larry Worthy, The Cherokee Phoenix, in About North Georgia [electronic journal], 2003 [cited 27 October 2003], available from <http://ngeorgiacom>. 11 Mark Trahant, "Pictures of our Nobler Selves", [online article, cited 3 November, 2003] available from World Wide Web at <http:// cherokeehistory.com/picture.html>. 12 John Ridge, Letter to Major Ridge and Others, 10 March 1835, In Cherokee Cavaliers, edited by Edward E. Dale and Gaston Litton, 13. This trail was about a Georgia law which ceded Indian lands to settlers. The Cherokee Natim appealed the Law to the Supreme Court, and won the verdict, which declared the law to be unconstitutional. 4 Court decision was announced, President Jackson is reported to have said, "John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it now if he can."13 The actions ofPresident Andrew Jackson towards the Cherokee Nation were the second reason John Ridge advocated a move. The President had persuaded congress to pass a law in 1830 that made it impossible for any eastern tribe to keep their lands and avoid moving to what was called "Indian Territory," west ofthe Mississippi. 14 This act turned the Cherokees against the President. John Ridge, in a letter to Stand Watie, responded to the President's complacency at the Supreme Court's decision which declared the law as unconstitutional by saying, ''The chicken snake General Jackson ... crawls and hides in the luxuriant grass of his nefarious hypocrisy."15 Chief John Ross was thunderstruck by Jackson's denial of Chief Justice John Marshall's decision and the treachery of the U.S. Senate in passing the nefarious bill stripping Indian lands. 16 Voicing firm opposition to any concession ofthe Cherokee Nation's sovereignty, he organized and "led the Cherokees' determined efforts to hold onto the land of their ancestors."17 Chief Ross considered any Indians who supported or sold Cherokee land without the approval ofthe Cherokee National Council to be traitors.18 The real conflict began when Elias Boudinot, the editor for The Phoenix, began to print articles which where in favor of the relocation of the Cherokees. Chief John Ross said nothing about the articles at first, but when the articles continued to appear, he 13Edward E. Dale and Gaston Litton, Cherolcee Cavaliers, 8.